appcompat.txt error

Hiya folks,

I've been having this problem off and on, and I've finally
isolated one of the variables, but I have no idea how to
solve it. Perhaps someone here can help.

I have a very small home network - wireless. It's just my
laptop, which runs Windows XP home edition and my wife's
desktop with Windows 98. Both of us run Office 2000
Professional Edition. (It was loaded on each machine from
the same CD).

For some reason, if I attempt to run any office program on
my laptop, it will run fine as long as I am connected to
the network and my wife's computer is turned on. If I
disable the connection, am too far away from the hub for
my card to pick up the signal am not connected at all, or
have my wife's computer turned off, I cannot run any
office programs. They start up, then close down with an
error message indicating appcompat.txt has been sent to
Microsoft.

I've been all over the web to attempt to find out what the
problem is. I've heard everything from I've got a bad CPU
to it's Winfax. (I know neither of these is the problem.
My laptop runs fine when connected to the network with the
other computer active, and I don't have Winfax on either
machine.)

Can anyone help? I'd like to be portable with my laptop.
It's sort of the point, right?

Thanks in advance - reply by e-mail if you want.

Garmani